Innovation fuel: how data is powering confidence in infrastructure

As we enter a new decade marked by political and environmental uncertainty, the industry needs to recognise the importance of data sharing as the key to efficient, resilient infrastructure.

The infrastructure sector is accumulating more data than ever before – at higher volumes, continuously, with more sources and data types and greater accuracy. The problem is that this data can only reach its true potential if it is shared, facilitating collaboration and fluid decision making, argues Chris Brooke, RICS President, Hong Kong.

2016’s ‘Modernise or Die’ report by construction consultant Mark Farmer [MRICS] highlights a lack of collaborative industry culture as one of the reasons behind the sector’s continued low productivity and inefficiency.

Technology adoption consultant Paul Wilkinson explains how traditional design and construction barriers need to be broken down, as do industry data silos.

“In an increasingly connected and fast-moving world economy, construction cannot remain parochial or silo-based,” says Wilkinson. “Seamless multi-disciplinary thinking facilitated by instant sharing of accurate, timely data is going to be critical to business success.”

At July’s RICS Construction Conference, Matt Yesugey, Project Principal at Mott McDonald spoke about how digital construction can challenge data silos and stagnant productivity in the industry, in turn improving inefficiency and facilitating discussions and decisions.

However, meaningful data analysis across infrastructure projects hinges on data being available in a shareable and common format. One of the key challenges facing RICS is: “how do we best ensure data confidence and transparency without stifling innovation?”

In October, RICS launched the first Data Standards Leaders Forum bringing together members of the RICS Tech Affiliate Programme and chaired by Andrew Knight, RICS International Data Standards Director, with the aim of reducing friction and improving the asymmetrical nature of data sharing across the sector.

The Forum explored the need for common data standards across the entire property lifecycle, focusing on both the technical aspects of data and ethics and compliance.

The attendees agreed that not only will data sharing across the sector unlock the potential for more informed project decisions, it will also allow a better skills exchange between the increasing number of tech start-ups in the industry, and the bigger, more traditional companies with the resource to make sense of and act on findings.

ICMS2: A step towards collaboration

Speaking at the RICS Digital Built Environment Conference in June, Professor Jennifer Whyte, Data-Centric Engineering Strategic Leader at The Alan Turing Institute explained how standardisation is the key to creating ‘digital twins’ of the national infrastructure system that offer the potential to increase both the efficiency and resilience of infrastructure.

As Whyte explained, stitching together construction, transport, meteorological, demographic, geographical and other sources of data into a single unified picture will enable the UK to develop a richer understanding of how to optimise infrastructure as we face growing populations, ageing assets and the potential effects of climate change.

Open data sets like Transport for London’s Open Data system and projects like OpenStreetMap, along with the growing network of smart sensors connected to the Internet of Things, are all potential pieces of the puzzle.

The freshly launched second edition of ICMS [International Construction Measurement Standards] is a major step towards a vision of greater data transparency and collaboration, according to Dr Patrice Cairns, RICS Policy Manager, Northern Ireland.

ICMS was developed by a coalition of 50 professional bodies including RICS and published in July 2017, and following strong global adoption of shared standards, was extended this year to cover the entire lifecycle of a construction project.

By breaking down long-held barriers across projects and markets and ensuring consistent, comparable data around the world, ICMS2 will enable innovation, reduce risk and help ensure sustainability.

“Firms adopting ICMS2 can work collaboratively in order to maximise the opportunities of urbanisation,” says Cairns . “As cities continue to push towards greater growth, major global disruptive trends demand smarter and more resilient support systems.”
ICMS2 also marks an exciting period for RICS as they will be both refreshing and publishing new standards and guidance to incorporate it.

The bigger picture with Civil Engineering Trends and Forecasts

It is easy to be daunted by the challenges of data. However, the influx of data and technology into the surveying industry represents an opportunity to augment and enhance existing job roles.

James Fiske, Director of Data and Information Product Group at RICS lead a panel at the RICS Infrastructure Conference in March which provided a view on why the infrastructure sector is lagging behind others, and what will it will take to catch up.

The key concept was trust, as Bryony Goldsmith of Arcadis noted – if the industry is going to move forward it must ensure trust: trust between professionals sharing data, trust in the fact that the digital transformation will not mean job cuts, but will instead free up more time for professionals to add value to their work, and trust in the technology itself.

At the RICS Digital Built Environment Conference, Fiske updated the sector on the launch of the new Civil Engineering Trends and Forecasts online service and the future of infrastructure benchmarking data.

The data aims at giving transparency on the factors that drive costs in infrastructure such as inflation and risks, helping with long term strategic planning, budgeting and investment decisions.

Data tools like these are not new – RICS has been collating and interpreting information on costs for fifty years. What is new is the ability to access this data digitally and combine it with unprecedented sources of insight, says Fiske, as he explained how the BCIS platform is evolving to meet changing industry demands:
"This is not the end of surveying – this is about evolving, being more productive and pushing surveying up the value chain."